AUTHOR: Njabulo S Ndebele
PUBLISHER: Sunday Times
DATE: 24 December 2011
DESCRIPTION: Humorous introspection on the part of a publicly demeaned group is the most apt response to the language of hurt. Not too long ago, Julius Malema said: “Bana ba lena ba tshwanetše ba dumelelwe gore ba tsene sekolo le bana ba makula.” He made this statement to a crowd of people at Tembelihle, a predominantly African community in the environs of Lenasia, a predominantly Indian community. Reportedly, Malema sought to persuade the crowd to join him in a planned march to the JSE, part of his drive for ¬“economic freedom in our time”. Two English translations of his ¬Sepedi statement are part of the controversy around it. “Your children,” goes the first translation “must be ¬allowed to go to school with coolie [Indian] children.”